Your conditions: Ute Lisenfeld
  • Dark matter halos and scaling relations of extremely massive spiral galaxies from extended HI rotation curves

    Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19

    Abstract: We present new and archival atomic hydrogen (\hi) observations of \galnum\ of the most massive spiral galaxies in the local Universe ($M_\star>10^{11} \, \mathrm{M}_\odot$). From 3D kinematic modeling of the datacubes, we derive extended \hi\ rotation curves, and from these, we estimate masses of the dark matter halos and specific angular momenta of the discs. We confirm that massive spiral galaxies lie at the upper ends of the Tully-Fisher relation (mass vs velocity, $M \propto V^{4}$) and Fall relation (specific angular momentum vs mass, $j \propto M^{0.6}$), in both stellar and baryonic forms, with no significant deviations from single power laws. We study the connections between baryons and dark matter through the stellar (and baryon)-to-halo ratios of mass $f_\mathrm{M} \equiv M_\star/M_\mathrm{h}$ and specific angular momentum $f_\mathrm{j} \equiv j_\star/j_\mathrm{h}$ and $f_\mathrm{j,bar} \equiv j_\mathrm{bar}/j_\mathrm{h}$. Combining our sample with others from the literature for less massive disc-dominated galaxies, we find that $f_\mathrm{M}$ rises monotonically with $M_\star$ and $M_\mathrm{h}$ (instead of the inverted-U shaped $f_\mathrm{M}$ for spheroid-dominated galaxies), while $f_\mathrm{j}$ and $f_\mathrm{j,bar}$ are essentially constant near unity over four decades in mass. Our results indicate that disc galaxies constitute a self-similar population of objects closely linked to the self-similarity of their dark halos. This picture is reminiscent of early analytical models of galaxy formation wherein discs grow by relatively smooth and gradual inflow, isolated from disruptive events such as major mergers and strong AGN feedback, in contrast to the more chaotic growth of spheroids.

  • NOEMA Observations of CO Emission in Arp 142 and Arp 238

    Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19

    Abstract: Previous studies have shown significant differences in the enhancement of the star-formation rate (SFR) and the star-formation efficiency (SFE=SFR/M_mol) between spiral-spiral and spiral-elliptical mergers. In order to shed light on the physical mechanism of these differences, we present NOEMA observations of the molecular gas distribution and kinematics (linear resolutions of ~ 2kpc) in two representative close major-merger star-forming pairs: the spiral-elliptical pair Arp142 and the spiral-spiral pair Arp238. The CO in Arp142 is widely distributed over a highly distorted disk without any nuclear concentration, and an off-centric ring-like structure is discovered in channel maps. The SFE varies significantly within Arp142, with a starburst region (Region 1) near the eastern tip of the distorted disk showing an SFE ~0.3 dex above the mean of the control sample of isolated galaxies, and the SFE of the main disk (Region 4) 0.43 dex lower than the mean of the control sample. In contrast, the CO emission in Arp238 is detected only in two compact sources at the galactic centers. Compared to the control sample, Arp238-E shows an SFE enhancement of more than 1 dex whereas Arp238-W has an enhancement of ~0.7 dex. We suggest that the extended CO distribution and the large SFE variation in Arp142 are due to an expanding large-scale ring triggered by a recent high-speed head-on collision between the spiral galaxy and the elliptical galaxy, and the compact CO sources with high SFEs in Arp238 are associated with nuclear starbursts induced by gravitational tidal torques in a low-speed coplanar interaction.